Penn State Punishments Unfair

ESPN.com- The NCAA has hit Penn State with a $60 million sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all wins dating to 1998, the organization said Monday morning. The career record of Joe Paterno will reflect these vacated records, the NCAA said.

Penn State also must reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period.

So the NCAA hit Penn State with some pretty severe punishments today. I have no doubt in my mind that NCAA officials felt pressure from the media and the public when making these decisions. Obviously the crimes committed by Jerry Sandusky are heinous, but I feel like people are unfairly blowing up the situation to the point that it implicates the entire university.  All this talk of the "death penalty" amongst the media undoubtedly made the NCAA come down harder than what was necessary. People see child molestation as the epitome of evil, even worse than murder, and because of that, they want to go on a witch hunt and behead anyone or anything associated with Penn State. But if we take a step back and look at this situation objectively, we see that Penn St. did not break any NCAA rules, nor did they gain a competitive advantage on the field. Thus I don't see how it is right to punish the football team, when they had nothing to do with this. Sure, the fact that Joe Paterno and other administrative members withheld their knowledge of Sandusky's crimes for all these years is unacceptable, but we cannot forget that these crimes were committed by one, and only one, rogue member of the Penn State football staff. Sandusky is the only one who will be spending the rest of his life in prison. Yes, the 60 million dollar sanction, and reduction of total scholarships are justified because they affect those in management positions who concealed Sandusky's actions for all these years. The Penn State administration will be affected financially by this punishment, which is necessary.  But how is it fair to vacate all wins between 1998 and 2011? Sandusky's actions in no way altered the results on the field. The 111 wins posted by this storied program between these thirteen years, a product of the hard work put forth by dedicated and talented student athletes, were not affected by the evil and clandestine crimes committed by this terrible man. Why punish what these unknowing athletes did because one man decided to molest children? This is in no way like the countless situations we see in which student athletes are knowingly given illegal monetary or material benefits, which inherently connect what happens on the field with what happens off the field. Between 1998 and 2011, the athletes of the Penn State football team had no involvement or connection to the illegal actions occurring behind the scenes. One may counter that vacating these wins affects Joe Paterno's legacy and reflects his individual failure in reporting these crimes (dropping him from 1st to 8th on the all time wins list), yet ultimately it is the players on the field who decide the outcome of games. I also have issue with the four year postseason ban, because it will affect current and future members of the football team. Sure, many of the top recruits can, and probably will transfer to other storied football programs, but how about those less heralded athletes/walk-ons who may not have any other options and can no longer look forward to the prospect of post-season play? Or how about Bill O'brien who left an offensive coordinator position in the NFL to coach this team? Fire those who covered these crimes up, pursue legal action against them, and move on. The NCAA made an awful mistake by failing to separate one man's actions off the field from what countless people did on the field. They let the public perception influence their decision in a way that unfairly punished those who had no involvement. Middle finger to you Sandusky, and shame on you NCAA.